| Cacán | |
|---|---|
| Diaguita–Calchaquí | |
| Kakán | |
| Native to | Northern Argentina and Chile |
| Ethnicity | Diaguita, Calchaquí |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | calc1235 |
Cacán (also Cacan, Kakán,1 Kakana,2 Calchaquí, Chaka, Diaguita, and Kaka) is an unclassified language spoken by the Indigenous Diaguita and Calchaquí peoples in northern Argentina and Chile. It has claimed to be of various linguistic affiliations.
Name
The name Diaguita is from Cacán tiac-y-ta 'village inhabitant'.3 The language was originally called Caca according to the Jesuit Alonso de Bárcena, but was modified to its current form.4
History
In the 16th century, the Cacán-speaking Diaguita people, who were "subdivided into numerous subtribes", such as the Calchaquí, Capayán, Hualfín, Pazioca, Pular and Quilme, lived in a vast territory encompassing modern-day Catamarca, La Rioja, and parts of Salta and San Juan provinces, and shared Tucumán and Santiago del Estero provinces with the Tonocoté. They notably resided in the Calchaquí Valley, crossing areas of Catamarca, Tucumán, and Salta. Around this time, the name Diaguita referred only to the Indigenous peoples of Catamarca and La Rioja, excluding those in the Calchaquí Valley. Following their defeat in the Calchaquí Wars, the Diaguitas were deported to other areas, entirely depopulating the Calchaquí Valley. Among the deported were the Quilmes, who were moved to what is now Quilmes, located in the Greater Buenos Aires area.54
Documentation
The language was documented in a grammar by Barcena, but the manuscript is lost.4
Classification
Genetic affiliation of the language remains unclear, and it has not been conclusively linked to any existing language family,6 though past proposals have included a link with Kunza and the essentially unknown Humahuaca.7
Dialects
According to Willem Adelaar (2004), some varieties, such as Capayana, required interpreters for the Spaniards to comprehend, indicating its status as a distinct language.4
Mason (1950)
Mason (1950) lists the Diaguita subgroups of Abaucan, Amaycha, Anchapa, Andalgalá, Anguinahao, Calchaquí, Casminchango, Coipe, Colalao, Famatina, Hualfina, Paquilin, Quilme, Tafí, Tocpo, Tucumán, Upingascha, and Yocabil. Acalian, Catamarca, and Tamano are possibly also Diaguita subgroups.8
Vocabulary
Cacán vocabulary possibly exists today in toponyms and local surnames, but the etymologies are often dubious. The Jesuit missionary Father Pedro Lozano recorded a few words of the language, listed in Nardi (1977)9 and Piispanen (2021).3
A phrase in Cacán and five other Indigenous languages of southern South America was recorded by Alonzo de Barcena in a 1594 letter, being Tius costa huma 'God regards you'.10
| Gloss | Piispanen (2021) |
|---|---|
| town, region; river; valley | vile |
| town | ahaoa |
| cactus thorn | ali |
| town | gastab |
| fertility deity | cacanchik |
| lord and king | titakin |
| Inca | inca |
| courageous | kalcha |
| much | qui |
| altar; place of sacrifice | zupka |
| shaman; medic | machi |
| head | enxam |
| water | ma |
| water | ango ~ anco |
| channel, stream | mampa |
| fire | tutu |
| sun | fil |
| tree | ki |
| type of acacia | bisco |
| type of lignum vitae | guacalac |
| type of edible fruit legume | chica |
| possible name of hallucinogenic fruit | sibild |
| likely type of fruit-bearing plant | tasi |
| type of poisonous bush | nio |
| type of cactus | quimil |
| type of owl | colcole |
| type of bird of prey | choya |
| trush [sic] | viñi |
| type of small bird | isma ~ ishmaf |
| sea bird | waco |
| chicken | walpag |
| type of beetle | champi |
| type of guanaco | talca |
| tortuga | walu |
| cat | mishih |
| likely type of raven or vulture | paja |
| arrow | talcol |
| maize | hua |
Notes
- May be exclusive to northern Cacán
- May be exclusive to southern Cacán
- May be from Spanish guacal 'wooden crate, calabash tree (Crescentia cujete), vessel of about equal height and width for storing or washing things in' ultimately from Classical Nahuatl huacalli.
- Toponym
- Borrowed into Argentinian Spanish colcol 'great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)', which is likely the original meaning in Cacán.
- Borrowed into Argentinian Spanish isma 'chiguanco thrush (Turdus chiguanco)', which is likely the original meaning in Cacán.
- Quechua loanword
- Loanword
Viegas Barros (2023)
The following list of words is taken from Viegas Barros (2023), who collected them from a rememberer of the language in 2021.11
| Gloss | Cacán |
|---|---|
| 20 | [ˈtika] |
| dry | [ˈsaχːi] |
| hard to take out | [ʧaˈsampi] |
| maize | [ˈsaχːaɾa] |
References
References
- Bixio, Beatriz (2020). Tiri kakán: recuerda nuestra lengua ancestral (PDF). Córdoba (Argentina): Ecoval Editorial. ISBN 978-987-4003-54-6.
- Cejas, Rita del Valle (2023). Registros de la lengua kakana (PDF). Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades. ISBN 978-950-33-1761-7.
- Piispanen, Peter S. (2021-01-01). Diaguitan etymologies (3rd revision ed.).
- Adelaar, Willem F. H.; Muysken, Pieter C. (2004-06-10). The Languages of the Andes (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511486852.005. ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
- "Quilmes Municipio - Historia". www.quilmes.gov.ar. Retrieved 2026-05-07.
- "Cacan". Linguamón – Casa de les Llengües. Archived from the original on 2012-02-18. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
- Mason, John Alden (1950). "The languages of South America". In Steward, Julian (ed.). Handbook of South American Indians. Vol. 6. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. pp. 157–317.
- Mason, John Alden (1950). "The languages of South America". In Steward, Julian (ed.). Handbook of South American Indians. Vol. 6. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. pp. 157–317.
- Nardi, Ricardo L. J. (1979). "Kakán, lengua de los diaguitas" (PDF). Sapiens. 3: 1–33.
- Biografia del Venerable Padre Alonso de Barzana de la Compañía de Jesús (PDF).
- Barros, J. Pedro Viegas (2023), Datos léxicos inesperados atribuidos a la lengua Kakana